Risk Perceptions of Mental Health Nurses

Risk is central to contemporary mental health nursing but, for nurses, it brings complex, stressful and often contradictory demands. This paper is a report of a study, carried out at a large Mental Health Trust in the North of England, into the areas of risk management which had been found most stressful and problematic. Responses indicated that risks were related to the nature of the client group. Staff relied heavily on intuition and past experience in risk situations, and some of the most commonly occurring such situations also produced the most stress. The subject of risk is one about which mental health nurses feel strongly and have considerable trepidation, because of the consequences of making mistakes and the conflicting demands placed upon them by society and by their senior colleagues.